Spring Flowers and painting a chair!

Hi Everyone, It has been awhile since I have posted. It seems this Spring is a really busy time, what with gardening and house cleaning and working on various projects for my art gallery/shop. It is so nice outdoors today and many flowers are blooming! The Mandavilla above is a new vine I bought to go on a trellis. Everything I have tried in that particular spot has died, so I thought this heat loving vine might survive. We will see!

 As you can see, this photo loaded twice....looks like I have twice the mini zinnias, so I will just leave it on here! I love zinnias because they love the heat and because they are excellent cut flowers for the house.

This year, I decided to make the "granny garden" a flower/herb garden.  I tried veggie last summer and it got hot so quickly that they did not do well. So I think herbs and flowers will do better. At least for now they look really pretty. I have basil and oregano in with the flowers. Notice in the right upper corner and you can see the large leaves of the banana tree. FINALLY, after about 10 years, I have a banana stalk growing.

These are what is known as "finger bananas". They are small when mature and very sweet and good. I see 3 "hands" of them. Can you pick out the hands?  

On a different subject, I am painting upholstery fabric on this wing back chair! Yes, the upholstery! I am using chalk paint mixed with water and fabric medium. Above is the start.

Here is the finished first coat.  You wet down the chair with a spray bottle of water first, then use very diluted paint on the first coat. Let dry overnight and then do a second coat.  This chair was flowered, so you can still see some of the flowers.  The second coat should take care of that.  It is a bluish gray color called Vintage. I plan to add some sort of decoration, maybe a twiggy tree branch on one side, or a stripe down the middle of cream color and paint the legs cream color.  I think up these ideas as I go along, so they may change. Anyway, I will post the finished product soon and then off it goes to my little shop!

It has been a fun Saturday! Hope you are having fun, too!